I wasn't aware of this Max Fleischer directed film or the characters from it, but I am glad to have now watched this. Western Electric Company made a great decision hiring animators to create a cartoon showing off and explaining their new sound system and how talking movies worked and are synchronized.
The film starts with an anthropomorphic roll of film named "Talkie" being drawn into life by an animator. Talkie then proceeds to sing and then play on a xylophone. A new character, "Mutie", pops up and stops the music. He then asks using text bubbles how Talkie was able to talk. Talkie tells him who got him his vocal chords and they whisk away to another scene. There, Talkie and Mutie meet Dr. Western, who specializes in lifting voices. We then see the three characters go through a stage, a projector, and the sound system in zany ways to explain how talking pictures are made.
Max Fleishcer, Western Elecrtic Comapny and the other cast and staff sure made what would be an audience bore fest in technical explanations into a fun little educational film. Two thumbs up.

My dad was only 5 when this was done <3 So excellent. Thank you!

loved the technical review of how talking pictures work.

interesting movie

There is something very special about the origin of film, whether it was the origin of the silent film, or the move to talkies.

In a day of special effects and CGI, it's so wonderfully refreshing to see how all that got it's start.

The last two seconds are the best, when our filmclip friends meet THEIR FATE - - DEATH - - when eaten and gulped down by a small whale while rowing in the sea. THE END. BTW, I thought whales only eat plankton?

I like this film, enjoyed much with the technical explanations - optically recorded and played sound in '20! Maybe analog but still very impressing!:)

OK, folks, I knew this would be a favorite the moment it started. It features not one, but two incredibly cute Mr. Product characters: Talkie, a cheery piece of sound film; and Mutie, a cranky piece of silent film. Mutie rudely breaks up Talkieâs act (a cute rendition of the âAnvil Chorusâ on a xylophone) and demands to know where Talkie got his voice. So Talkie takes him to Dr. Western, who explains the sound-on-film process to him, and to us, in detail. This delightful animated film was made in the early days of sound, to explain the process to theater owners, which gives it lots of historical value. But historical value is not what appeals to me hereââitâs the delightful characters of Talkie and Mutie, as well as Dr. Western, who veers dangerously close to being a mad scientist. The ending is a real hoot, but I wonât give it away. Suffice to say that I enjoyed this film from beginning to end. You canât go wrong with Mr. Product characters as far as Iâm concerned.
Ratings: Camp/Humor Value: *****. Weirdness: *****. Historical Interest: *****. Overall Rating: *****.

A vintage treasure. Very enjoyable.

Wow, a really funny cartoon, what an interesting way to introduce sound films...
I think the funniest thing is, that this film talks about optical soundtracks, while according to IMDB it originally had a vitaphone soundtrack :D
Great anyway

great educational funny cartoon
totally worth watching

This film is steeped in historical value, but it is still very enjoyable. The two main characters are rather uncreatively named "Talkie" and "Mutie", but that doesn't deter from the quality of this film. It is funny and very enjoyable. It's also fascinating to hear about all the stuff that had to be done in order for a film to have sound! We certainly have it much easier now! The ending is one that cannot be missed!

Excellent demo. I'd just like to mention that Westrex also produced a variable area optical recorder. I think it was in the 1940s, prior to that RCA ruled the area domain (galvo system). Westrex simply mounted the strings in a vertical mode to produce an area track. I worked with the the rather rare Westrex model 1581 duo bilateral recorder The variable area track is still in use at present as the DolbySR default track on digital sound tracks.

Germany's Klang and British GB Kalee also produced variable area recorders. However these systems used a moving mask.

In the late 1940s John Maurer (Los Angeles?) made a 16mm direct negative/direct positive optical recorder utilising a moving mask. It was remarkable as it could record a clean, sharp 10KHz sine wave on film negative. Printing it was another story ......

Otto Snel.

Although we have had this title in our archives for many years, it is one of several 16mm dupes that have been circulating for decades. The 16mm prints have all generally been rather good.
But withing the last five years, UCLA has restored it from a 35mm source, and re-recorded the soundtrack as well. Ironically, the re-recorded track is of a rival method--Variable Area, when the method demonstrated and used on the prints was Variable Density.

The film was originally commissioned by the Electical Research Products Incorporated division of Western Electric, which takes credit for the story, E.R.P.I. It was originally intended as a demontration film for threater owners, projectionists, and sound techinicians. Although it tends to get a bit lost within its own technicalities, the animation helps to keep a rather dry subject entertaining. The situation is personified by two rolls of film, one called "Talkie," the other "Mutie." Throughout the film, little technical details are found such as "Mutie"'s pulse needing to be pepped up from 60 to 90. This is a reference to the differences between silent and sound film speeds, which was an increase of 50% by Western Electric.

Additional information on this subject can be gained from my documentary, FIRST SOUND OF MOVIES (2003), which not only uses some footage from FINDING HIS VOICE, but also tells the story of the development of the sound on film process by Dr. Lee deForest.

Excellent 1929 short on the description of optical sound. From the early advents of the talkies, which was the sound on disk (16 inch shellac disks syncronized with the projector via linkage from the projector motor, in which is what DTS is-kind of of a step backwards with using an external CDrom source for sound to sync up with the timecode on the film for playback), in the process of going forwards with digital sound to our digital sound we have today, it's amazing to also see how the early methods of creating what is called a variable density soundtrack using the wire and aperture method, whereas the later methods of variable desnity recordings were with light passing through an aperture that would bright and dim with voltage variations of the original sound source. Also, in this clip of the projection device, being interesting that the cartoonists used the Powers 6-B silent projector adapted for sound on disk usage for this animated short. And, also take a look at those stage speakers with the folded horn concept-very antique. Overall, quite an interesting short to present to the public on how sound is created for the motion picture audience. I've been the motion picture field for over 35yrs-from carbon arc, exciterlamp, nitrate film, and changeovers to the digital world as we know it today..

I am a member of the Film-Tech forums at www.film-tech.com & what I have seen in this short is a Western Electric/Vitaphone projector. What I see in the film is a Simplex pre-Super Simplex 35 projector on a Western Electric soundhead,known as an analogue optical sondhead or analogue optical sound reader.
Ther are today besides the analogue optical track three optical digital tracks whisch are SDDS-Sony Dynamic Digital Sound ,DTS-sort for Digital Thatre Systems, & Dolby Digital. DTS involves using an optical Morse code-like trak called a timecode track which syncronizes a CD-ROM disc containing the separate sound with the film. The 35 millimeter film originally on flammable nitrate stock has evolved to acetate then polyester known by Kodak as Estar film stock. So much has changed in theatre sound & projection technology from carbon arc to filament style bulbs to xenon bulbs & possibly to in the future to all laser projection light sources-combining red,green & blue lasers to produce a necessary white light for projection.
Also,the maens of transporting film through projectors has gone from reel-to-reel projection to film platter style reel systems for most theatres. Without film platters,multiple screen theatres would not be possible.

In this early Max Fleischer short, the process of how talkies were made at the time. Completely animated, it features Soudie, the talking filmstrip, and his friend the silent one, about how to get his voive. They go to Dr Western and then Dr Western goes into a simewhat tedious scientific explanation about how sound his made. Somewhat interesting though as we see processes that are no longer used (the camer in the soundproof room for example). Soo, the silent filmstrip DOES find his voice and joins his brother for a singalong version of 'Merrily We Roll Along' to a an amazingly hilarious finale which I can't spoil for you. Let me say it's rather unexpected. Reccomended!

Max Fleischer, as well as being a animation pioneer in both the silent and sound eras, also did a number of industrial and advertising films. This 1929 piece is a fascinating example. The film finds Max in a stylistic crossover, from the more simplistic animation of his Out Of The Inkwell series, using block blacks and little, if any backgrounds, to the more detailed backgrounds and larger grey pallets that would mark his 1930s work of Betty Boop and Popeye.

Not only is this an excellent example of Fleischer's work, it is wonderful overview of how sound on film works, a technology that remained basically the same until the advent of multi-channel stereo on film in the early 1990s.